Monday, March 5, 2018 - "Are you the angels of mercy?"

SCOTLAND IS SHUT DOWN.  The world seemed to be in a panic.  No one drove for a few days.  Everyone was walking to the store and buying all their food.  There was actually a "bread crisis" here a few days ago.  It did snow quite a lot though.  All the way up to our knees, so I'll give them a little break.  Scotland is definitely not equipped to handle the snow.  There were a couple plows out, but no one did anything about their own snow.  Most people don't even have a shovel!  If they do, it was a garden shovel.  We saw a lot of people that were shoveling with dust pans.  It was so sad to watch. I think Dumbarton go the worst of it.  Our district leader, in Motherwell, said they only had about 4 inches.   

Church was cancelled...kinda... so across the whole stake church was cancelled because all the reports still said not to drive.  Part of our ward (the part within walking distance) was given permission to gather at someone's home.  We went there and had the sacrament and a little testimony meeting.  It was nice.  

We did not go up to Oban this week.  Monday we just ran a bunch of errands.  Tuesday we had Scotland South Conference in Edinburgh.  The snow was starting on the way back from Edinburgh and we (the two of us and President) decided it would be best if we didn't go to Oban this week.  GOOD CALL.  On Wednesday the country was on red alert and all mission vehicles were grounded.  We would've been stuck in Oban for days, not being able to do ANYTHING!  

It snowed Tuesday night, all of Wednesday, most of Thursday and then decided to quit.  It was pretty crazy.  Sister Davis was sick all week.  We didn't work a full day until yesterday.  It was good timing to get sick though because there were no people out and about and it made missionary work kinda difficult.

Yesterday we decided that our time would best be used shoveling drives.  After our little church service we borrowed "good snow shovels" from one of the members.  Tiny, little things, but they were sturdy.  We walked around and if we saw someone shoveling or if we saw a driveway that hadn't been done we did it.  We ended up shoveling for about 5 hours and lets just say my shoulder feels like I just threw 7 innings after a long winter season......

It was so wonderful to be able to serve though!  We tried to help one man and he said, "No, go do that house over there.  They need their car dug out."  So we went and started doing it.  We were working for a while when an elderly man came out and said, "Are you the angels of mercy?"  He explained that he was too old to shovel and his wife had a heart attack last year and they couldn't do it.  They were also saying how worried they were about how they were going to get their car out of the snow because she had a doctor's appointment the next day!  It was so nice to be able to help them and be an answer to prayer.  We also helped another man who had Parkinson's.  He was shoveling (with the help of two neighbors with their dust pans).  We walked up and started helping.  They said, "Are you good Samaritans?"  It was so wonderful to be able to help these people this past week!

A NOTE TO FRIENDS/RECENT CONVERTS IN IRELAND:  Sister missionaries are not allowed to e-mail with members of the opposite sex during their missions.  You can be sure Sister Baker will keep up with you and follow your progress through sister members and other missionaries for the next year.  ☘